Swordsman

For more context about these specific parallel Earths shenanigans, we suggest that you first read our character profile for Proctor and his Gatherers.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Jarvert possesses no super-powers, but is a master swordsman.

His sword, of unknown manufacture, can fire a beam of energy at targets. It can also be used to deflect attacks back at a target, or towards other targets.

History

Swordsman is a native of an alternative reality (Earth-921), whose Earth fell victim to the madness of its Sersi. He had been left to die by his world’s Vision, who loved Swordsman’s woman Mantis.

But Jarvert was saved by Proctor, who claimed his reality had also been a victim of his Sersi. Proctor recruited Philip into his Gatherers, to hunt down and stop the Sersi’s of other dimensions before they did the same to their worlds.

Gatherers

Some travellers to alternate realities have trouble physically adapting to a dimension where a version of them already exists. They can be left disoriented and weakened. This was true in Swordsman’s case, and his hazy memories led him to blame all the Avengers for abandoning him.

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Proctor discovered the “Gathering” ritual as a way around this. It involves locating the traveller’s counterpart and killing them.

Jarvert’s arrival broke up a burgeoning relationship between Magdalene and Proctor, when Magdalene and Philip fell in love. Proctor kept them on as Gatherers, but harboured a grudge against the pair.

The Swordsman of the Earth-616 was long dead. Thus the Swordsman could not be properly Gathered, and was left disoriented a lot of the time. But Magdalene always close by his side, caring for him.

Assault on Earth-616

Proctor sent Magdalene and the Swordsman to attack the Earth-616  Avengers, whom the Swordsman blamed for abandoning him to die. But his disorientation worked against them, and they were forced to flee.

On another gathering trip, they Gatherers recovered the Coal Tiger. He was grievously wounded when they found him, and needed Gathering quickly to have a chance of surviving in the new dimension. Sensing that his counterpart was also an Avenger in this dimension, Proctor sent the Gatherers to Avengers mansion to access their computers.

The Gatherers had already infiltrated the Avengers mansion twice, undetected. But the Avengers had detected anomalies, and were prepared for them on this occasion. They fought briefly, but Cassandra managed to subdue the Avengers. The Gatherers escaped with the information about their new member’s counterpart, the Black Panther.

They travelled to Wakanda, only to discover that the Avengers had warned T’Challa about the Gatherers. As they attacked him, some of the recovered Avengers arrived, transported by Lockjaw, coming to the Black Panthers aid. While the battle raged, the Black Panther was subdued by the Gatherers, and Cassandra attempted to Gather him.

However the ritual was disrupted by the Coal Tiger, who refused to let another die in his place. He soon died, and the Gatherers fled, but the Swordsman was captured before he could get away.

Prisoner of the Avengers

While a prisoner of the Avengers, Swordsman came to understand that he was not on his own world. Thus, these Avengers were not the ones who had betrayed him. Away from Proctor’s influence, Jarvert also seemed less disoriented.

While he initially had trouble accepting the Vision’s presence, he eventually came to accept him as a different being to the Vision he knew.

Proctor did not want the Avengers to get any information from the Swordsman, and wished revenge on Jarvert for stealing Magdalene’s affections. Thus, recruited the Vision from Swordsman’s world, captured the real Vision, and sent his to infiltrate the Avengers and kill Swordsman.

While he managed to seriously injure the Swordsman, leaving him in a coma, the Gatherer’s Vision was captured.

The Avengers forced him to lead them to Proctor’s base. When they confronted him, Magdalene discovered that Proctor had tried to have Swordsman killed. Thus, she turned on Proctor. She survived the destruction of the citadel and surrendered to the Avengers, desperate to see the Swordsman.

Avenging blade

When Philip emerged from his coma, he and Magdalene continued to stay with the Avengers for a while. They even went on missions with them. They moved out of Avengers mansion when Tony Stark lent them a place to stay, but still maintained contact with the Avengers, helping them in battle.

When the Avengers disappeared during the Onslaught affair, they became more active, helping to fill the void left by the group’s absence.

Shortly after the heroes returned, they were attacked, as were all former Avengers, by mythological creatures. They answered a call to a gathering of all former Avengers. Thus they were part of the team sent to recover a Norn Stone from the South Pacific, where they battled the Midgard Serpent.

The whole scenario had been a trap by Morgan le Fay, who captured the Scarlet Witch. Morgan used the Witch’s power to alter the world into a more medieval setting. There the Avengers were changed into the Queen’s Vengeance, her personal army.

The Avengers were eventually freed of Morgan’s control, and restored the world to its normal state.

Into the timestream

Shortly after, with the Avengers reformed, the Swordsman and Magdalene were offered reserve member status. But they declined, still feeling out of place in the world.

Later, Iron Man and Magdalene managed to restore her lance’s power to travel dimensions. This allowed the Squadron Supreme to return to their own world. Swordsman and Magdalene decided to leave Earth-616 too, to try and find somewhere in the multiverse they could belong.

Personality

When he first appeared he was still disoriented from dimensional travel (although this was probably exacerbated by Proctor). Thus, all he could remember was his anger at the Avengers for leaving him to die. When removed from Proctor’s influence, he reverted to his true persona.

He is deeply loyal to his team mates, and devoted to the Avengers. As a consequence, he can be quick to anger if he thinks someone isn’t living up to the honour of their membership. After a while, however, being around the Avengers reminded him too much of what he’d lost. Thus, he decided to find a new home for himself and Magdalene.

Quotes

“You left me to rot in Hades, Avengers. You left me to die ! And today you pay the price ! This the Swordsman swears !”

Black Knight: “Okay, I admit it – that was an impressive move. But you’ve just met your better !”
Swordsman: “I’m sorry, Knight. You’re wrong. I am second to none. There is no ‘better’.”

DC Universe History

The Gathering would probably work better in the DC Universe, where it’s already established that travellers in Hypertime cannot survive on a world where a counterpart of them already exists. Substitute Zatanna for Sersi, and the Justice League for the Avengers.

Swordsman would be a counterpart of Oliver Queen, who took up the sword rather than the bow, and place the story during the time Queen was dead.

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Sébastien Andrivet.